Thursday, May 13, 2004

I have been recognised. This is a strange and slightly unpleasant experience for me. Yesterday at fencing, the girl at the equipment room told me that one of her friends recognised me from junior high. She told me his name, but I couldn't place him. I asked if she was sure that he was sure he knew me. "Oh yes," she said. "Vanessa. You went to Queen Elizabeth for junior high. I didn't have to look your name up on the fencing keys list before he knew it."

So, yes, apparently, he does recognise me from junior high. But despite writing down his name and taking a bitter-sweet journey through my yearbooks last night after I came home, I still don't recognise him, have no idea who he is, or have any inkling of how our paths might have crossed. He was a year below me, I really don't believe he caught the same bus as I did, he wasn't in band, nor did he appear to be on students' council.

What disturbs me most is that he told his friend that I was one of the "cool people," so far above him that he wouldn't even dare speak to me. I have never been one of the cool people. Never, in my entire life. This revelation is shocking.

I have hazy recollections of junior high. What did I do that would cause someone to get that kind of impression of me? More importantly, what was it that that impression remains to this day, that he remembers my first name after thirteen or fourteen years, when I couldn't pick him out of a lineup if he had a stamp on his forehead saying, "I went to Q.E.?" I have never considered myself memorable. Plain-featured, not terribly outspoken, introverted, unsociable until more recent history. I don't understand. I really don't.

I have been told that I can be intimidating. I thought it was a recent occurrence, but perhaps it is not. I wish I remembered more from back then. Maybe it would help me put this experience into perspective.

1 comments:

I think you were always intimidating. Part of it is because of your height... you were also distinctive. Anyway, I think it's absolutely hilarious (I hope you won't take this the wrong way) that he remembers you as one of the cool people... just goes to show how things look different from a distance than when you're in the middle of them. Anyway, take it as a huge compliment that you were remembered, and in a good way!